Personal projects come in all shapes, sizes, and mediums, but Branding 10,000 Lakes sounds and is badass through and through. Minnesota designer Nicole Meyer has undertaking a gigantic, 27 year long side project, which is to design a logo for a lake a day of which there are ten thousand in Minnesota. The beauty here folks is that you aren’t going to have to wait nearly 3 decades to see this collection of gems because Nicole has already been cracking and has designed up a whole bunch of amazing logos so far.

This is one of those self initiated projects that cuts through all the client less clouds and kicks serious ass. Designer Christopher David Ryan created this logo for the nice broad mock client Hip Hop. He really nails it with the layering of the two component words, and the execution is all there. The letters just meld together into an unbreakable type mark.

If more packaging was beautiful the world would be a more enjoyable place. This example designed by Gabriel Morales is the branding and packaging concept for latex glove manufacturer Foil. Some people argue that a product’s packaging must reflect it’s use and sensibilities, but sometimes making the landscape a little less ugly could be a good goal.

Branding starts with a good idea, but is made with a great name and completed with perfectly executed design. Costa Chica in my opinion is a wonderful idea, a playful name and has impeccable design done by Savvy Studio. I wish this restaurant was in my town I would definitely pop in there for some Mexican food.

I don’t think I am alone in having wonderful memories of enamelware plates and mugs from camping adventures during childhood. Falcon Enamelware has been making the same great line of products 1920 and is going to be releasing some new stuff this year. Their utterly classic pieces are part utilitarian part high design home goods. Their bright blue rim along with the crisp white are perfect. Enough about the dishes though. Morse Studio of our very own New York City has recently launched a new website and on it is some amazing work including a holistic rebrand for none other than Falcon Enamelware. They also art directed some seriously delicious food photography by Sam Stowell.

The old Nasa logo and identity is such an iconic piece both of American design and history. We all know this old logo from images of space shuttles, press materials, and the Air and Space Museum, but most of us have never seen the brand ass it would be applied to uniforms and other collateral.

I really love the use of old lithographic style flowers in the branding for British jewelry designer Taylor Black. The branding, collateral, and website were all designed by Interbang. Their packaging system is super simple and elegant, which really suits the companies aesthetic.

One sign of a great branding project to me is being able to, at a glance tell that all the elements are part of the same family, but that they are not all identical. Differing layouts and designs help each piece or element to fit it’s purpose or home. The system for the wine bottles and coffee cups are particularly striking. Their minimalist design is impeccable, but they also create a level of autonomy for the very distinct drink subcategory. All the design for London based Caravan was carried out by Inhouse. If you are in London you should pop in and grab a cup of coffee. Caravan is located on a corner in Farringdon’s Exmouth Market, and their interior looks like it does justice to the overall brand.

ArtBinder is a sleek iPad app. for galleries, which is currently in a private beta release. I worked closely with founder Alexandra Chemla and COO Jeremy Galen to create the front facing promotional marketing site along with the sales flow and customer side CMS tools. Working with the iPad app already in it’s final stages gave me a unique problem. I had to create a strong visual design that was cohesive and complementary to the app’s design and function.

The third book in the Great British Design series, Great British Identity is out and now available at Index Book and Amazon. The leather bound book is a great reference catalog and archive of British identity work.

Adam Hill designed this great branding for Mad Brew Productions. The concept of the branding is that the different sections or departments of Mad Brew are visually represented with three different hat icons. The engraving style of the icons and all the supporting type work play off of one another well.

In this case I must quote my source Erik Spiekermann, “Supermarket brands don’t have to be ugly”. That is a true statement and the wonderful supporting example is of German supermarket chain Tegut. Their branding is anchored down by a proprietary typeface based on Spiekermann’s Officina Sans, and their other collateral elements include other of Spiekermann’s fonts along with ones from Mitja Miklavčič, and Christian Schwartz. For more info about the Tegut brand and their fonts check out the article on Fonts in Use.

I love this look at process behind the branding Jamie VanWart, aka Ketchup n Mustard did for Parlour. The project was mainly based on creating the custom logotype for the boutique ice cream truck in Durham, North Carolina, and a website design that may launch in the future.

The state of affairs of ebooks and the integration of reading with the web and the advances in media purchasing has been in a bummer place for a while. In comes Booki.sh. A cloud based ebook library and reading platform, which is accessible on most mobile devices and web browsers. This is a decisive step forward for reading and media related applications, both for it’s thoughtfulness and it’s singular vision. Not attempting to cover too much ground. Booki.sh has restricted their focus to ebooks and the related interaction, and consumption chain.

All the beautiful branding and web design is the work of A Friend of Mine. The project also included a custom typeface applied to the logotype based on a pair of eyeglasses, which adds a playful, yet scholarly identity to the branding.

The Swedish design firm Lundgren+Lindqvist worked on this comprehensive rebranding for Loft Investments. The bold logo type and colors of the brand are nice and pair well with minimal grid design of the the accompanying digital designs. When viewed on the iPad, as pictured here the site is extra sleek.

Designer Anders Hernando Balsells created this fun colorful branding, From Barcelona, to promote tourism in his home country of Spain. It was part of his master’s degree program at Universitat Ramon Llull.

Even today there are rather few blogs and web based editorials that truly craft unique quality content. The Brander as far as I know is the first to do such a thing for brands, their development, and the people behind them. Pairing amazing photographs with comprehensive writing they truly rise to the occasion of covering people and brands that have risen to top of their field, or in some cases created a field.

Peru has recently launched a new identity that is intended to elevate the image of their country on the international stage. As a beautiful country with amazing internationally exported goods, and an economy largely based on tourism this sound choice. They hired Future Brand who was behind the 2003 rebrand of Australia that has been widely applauded.

I posted about the The Official Manufacturing Company previously here. Their work is always impressively bold and holds very specific characteristics based on each client and their brand. They also maintain a client list equally as impressive as their work, including Ace Hotel, Rudy’s Barbershop, and Stumptown Coffee Roasters. Last time I posted about them I had just encountered the new packaging Stumptown had released, which they designed. Since that post they have done more great work for Stumptown along with a slew of other great stuff.